TEST DRIVE MEME

[evercyclic]

Whet your whistle, try out the setting, and see who you want to bring to the party! IT'S A MINOR BLIP IN TIME Maybe you were showering, or sleeping, having breakfast. You might have been participating in your morning commute or fighting off a horde of zombies. Whatever you were in the middle of, a strange sensation of disconnection comes over you, as though you're watching your life on screen, a passive audience to the proceedings. It's almost like, well, being sucked down the drain like every adolescent nightmare, the feeling of disconnection replaced quickly with a pain so deep, it's as though every atom of your being is pressed too closely together, and your vision goes dark. Then, just as quickly as the pain came over it, it's gone, reality snapping back into place like a stretched rubber band. WELCOME TO NEW YORK CITY When your eyes adjust, you find yourself in a slightly spartan room, standing on a platform that seems to be made of glass or some sort of crystal. Energy currents in blues and greens swirl within it, dizzying and hypnotizing if stared at for too long. You're shocked from the vision by a cheery, bubbly voice that belongs to a petite brunette grinning at you from the base of the steps that lead down from the platform. She apologizes for any inconvenience you may have been caused, and hands you a small package, explaining that inside you'll find a phone, a directory of locations within the complex you've arrived in, a charge card with a balance of $500, and a key to a room in the dormitories which can be reached by following the green line on your directory. She apologizes again for how confusing this must all be, but assures you that everything will make sense soon! THOSE SEXY PROMPTS 01 ARRIVAL After receiving your mysterious package from the happy girl who identifies herself as Airy, she suggests you head out and explore! You find out pretty quickly, or have a lot of trouble figuring out, that you're in a vast underground complex that consists of a lot of areas the directory says are "RESTRICTED". Places you can access are listed as "Forest", "Rec Room", "Cafeteria", and "Dormitories". 02 FOREST Down a hallway across from a RESTRICTED area, a vast room filled with a living, breathing, underground forest can be found. Here, deep underground, the sun shines, a small creek flows, birds sing, and one could really believe they were outside. There's even a pleasant breeze! Weird, right? 03 REC ROOM On the opposite side of the complex, near the dormitories, one will find another vast room labeled "REC ROOM". Inside, there is a seating area with basic refreshments (water, sports drinks), board games, a more relaxed seating area with sofas and places to read, a separate room that contains exercise equipment, another with an indoor pool, and a small basketball court. In a separate game room, there are arcade machines, an air hockey table, pool table, and ping pong table. 04 CAFETERIA Across the main hall from the REC ROOM, one will find the double doors leading to the CAFETERIA. Outside, on a easel chalkboard, can be found the menu items available for the meal currently being served. Inside, several dozen tables and chairs take up most of the floor, and the din of conversation is comparable to a high school cafeteria. The older gentleman in the kitchen will come to the counter when approached to see which of the selection you'd like. We'd really recommend sticking to the offered selection. 05 DORMITORIES Situated in a wing complex near the REC ROOM and the CAFETERIA is the DORMITORY wing. Rooms are solo and very small, ten to a hallway, and contain a single bed, a small dresser with mirror, and a small standing closet. Each hall has a common room at the end with seating and a five shelf bookcase, off of which are male and female bathrooms with showers, and a laundry room with four washers and four dryers. 06 WILDCARD Start your own prompt! See what that phone can do, facilitate random encounters in any of the unrestricted areas! Go wild! Literally!

( DIRECTORY )

Comments

Rogue | X-Men: Days of Future Past: The Rogue Cut

[theycalledmeacurse]

02 FOREST

Rogue had taken one look at the map and immediately known where she needed to go. Not wanted, needed. When was the last time she'd seen a tree? Three years ago, when the Sentinels had captured her. Three long years of seeing nothing but the walls of her cell, with the only signs of life that of her captors and her fellow prisoners.

When she stepped into the forest from a hallway nearly identical to all the others, her breath was taken away. She stared up at the sky with an actual sun and it was... How it was possible wasn't a concern at that moment. All that mattered was that it felt real. There was life here, trees and birds and a soft breeze that didn't smell of ash and a world turned to ruin. Rogue took a few steps further into the 'room' before collapsing to her knees, just continuing to stare in shock and awe at the beauty all around her.


04 CAFETERIA

More than just another place to explore, Rogue was drawn to the cafeteria because it reminded her of home. The actual space looked nothing like the dining hall at the mansion, and she was sure the kitchens would be quite different as well, but it was the feel of it. Everyone coming together, life convening in one space with a shared purpose. If nothing else, she'd be able to remind herself what it was like to be around other people.

The only problem? She wasn't hungry. No matter how long she stood there examining the menu posted on the sign, she couldn't decide on what sounded good, because there was no pleasure in eating anymore. But she couldn't just stand there, so in she went, looking around the room and feeling rather... lost.

04 (I couldn't resist)

[playsforkeeps]

Remy was no stranger to alternate worlds, dimensions, timelines. He'd been to at least one where no one knew his name, and another where his alternate self had ended things pretty succinctly. It served to reason this place was just a new brand of weird, and he didn't find it too surprising he'd run into Anna here.

Of course, one look at her told the Cajun this wasn't his Anna. That was rich. "His Anna." Anna hadn't been his in years, if he was honest with himself, if she ever really had been in the first place. It was one of the things he'd always liked about her. Rogue never really belonged to anybody. 'Course, all that wasn't going to stop him from being friendly.

He smiled his charming smile as he moved beside her, blinking eyes that clearly marked him as a fellow mutant curiously.

"Bonjour, chere. Havin' trouble choosin', or just wonderin' why it's normal ta have a diner in a bunker?"

[theycalledmeacurse]

Rogue had never been to alternate worlds or timelines herself, but she knew they existed. The X-Men had encountered people from those alternate realities enough times for all of this to be somewhat easy to swallow, especially considering where she'd just come from. Resetting the timeline for her entire world? Kind of hard to ignore that as being real, when their hopes for a better life hinged upon it being so.

But despite doing her best to embrace this... whatever this was, she still could never had anticipated him being there. Her eyes widened as she drank in the sound of that voice and her heart literally skipped a beat as it became difficult to breathe. Four years. It had been four years since she'd heard that warm accent in anything but her mind, since anyone living had called her chere. The most heartbreaking thing, though, was when she turned to look at him and knew in an instant that he wasn't her Remy. He wasn't the man she'd loved and lost. He wasn't her husband.

"Both," she answered quietly, her southern drawl no longer as pronounced as it had once been, but still there in the smooth tones that were tinged with sadness. "Hello, swamp rat." Lord, how she'd missed calling him that.

[playsforkeeps]

Remy was hard-pressed to keep a more genuine smile from teasing his lips at her response. They'd had their ups and down, he and his Anna, his world's Anna he should think, but no matter what had come between them, she still held a special place in his thoughts, his heart. Soulmates, he thought still, even after all this time. They had a connection, twisted and tarnished but undeniable, and she, this Rogue, knew him.

In his trade, reading people was a staple, though getting a read on Rogue had never been easy. She was fond of him, though, he could tell that much, but there was a sadness in her voice and he found himself wondering what might have happened to his otherworld counterpart. A cafeteria in a new world wasn't the place to ask, though, and he filed the questions welling in his mind away for closer inspection later.

"I reckon we ain't so far from home, eh?" It was a stretch, there was no real way of knowing how much this Rogue knew of him, but that sadness rapped at his mind's door. They were close, then, but how long ago? "Relatively speakin', course."

[theycalledmeacurse]

The idea of soulmates was something Rogue had resisted for a long time; the idea of anything at all between them had been resisted, to be honest. She hadn't trusted Remy, with his devilish smile and smooth talking ways - she'd been certain that he couldn't possibly be serious about having a relationship with a woman he couldn't touch. But he'd kept trying and when he finally wore her down... Soulmates. There wasn't another word more fitting for them.

If the circumstances had been different, she'd have been trying to read him the same way he was reading her. The way she'd learned to from both her own experiences and Remy's training, just one of many things her husband had taught her. But in that moment she was too lost in those demon eyes that had once looked at her with pure affection, and she wished vainly that she could see that look in them again, just one more time.

"Home," she repeated softly. "Your home, maybe, but not mine. Mine's a long ways from here." If it even existed anymore. She'd seen the city burned to the ground, but that was her world, not this one, and that meant... So many things. Or maybe nothing at all.

[playsforkeeps]

The Cajun shook his head gently, a hint of sadness touching his voice when he spoke. He couldn't help it. Sure, they said this place was New York, but that could mean anything when you got right down to it.

"Non, ain' my home, neither." He smirked at an internal joke before sharing it. "Ain' enough Stark tech around."

[theycalledmeacurse]

She could hear that sheen of sadness in his voice and it made her chest ache. He should be happy. Everything in his life should be good and wonderful, because that's what he deserved, and the only thing that would change her opinion would be if he proved to be an entirely different man than the Remy LeBeau she'd known.

And that smirk. Good lord, she'd forgotten how handsome he was when he smiled like that. He might not be her Remy, but the similarities were astonishing.

"I guess we really are from different universes," she responded, finally voicing her theory aloud. "Unfortunately, I don't know what Stark tech is."

[playsforkeeps]

No he didn't, not really. Not in his opinion at least, but that conversation was for another day, and another Rogue if the truth be told, at least for now.

He couldn't help giving her a sardonic smirk, though. "Consider yo'self blessed, mon chere." He shook his head, almost unable to believe it. "A world without Tony Stark. Dat's downright novel."

[theycalledmeacurse]

She almost said something about how maybe things would have been different if this Tony Stark had been in her world as he'd been in Remy's, but... She wasn't ready for that. For him to know everything that had happened to her, for him to see her in a different way. She knew nothing about this Gambit - just because he looked like her husband didn't mean they were the same man.

"Who am I to you in your world?" she asked him suddenly, completely derailing the current topic of conversation and not caring in the slightest. It was something she needed to know, and he was the only one who could tell her.

[playsforkeeps]

That single question invoked what seemed like a lifetime of emotions ranging from rage to adoration. Who was she to him? She was a never-ended source of frustration, support, friendship, and loneliness. How was he supposed to explain any of it to a woman who didn't know what they'd gone through together, the Hells they'd dragged one another through over the years?

He swallowed, looking away in the vain hope the answer would materialize out of the same nether they had not too long ago. With nothing deciding to show itself, he looked back to her, the varying emotions playing through his gaze.

"Dat's a complicated question, mon chere, an' it ain't got a simple answer."

[theycalledmeacurse]

The question would have been no easier for her to answer had it been him doing the asking, though the answer she gave him would have been very different. Remy LeBeau had been her everything. Once she had finally stopped fighting and being so afraid of all that he offered, she had fallen head over heels for the prince of thieves; he'd stolen her heart. They had worked past their issues together and been stronger for it.

But apparently that hadn't happened with this one. The implications of those few words made her heart ache, and she frowned and turned her gaze downward, leveling it with his chest instead of trying to face those strangely beautiful eyes. "Oh."

What a disappointing response. Her own, not his. So she tried again.

Clearing her throat slightly, she raised her eyes back up, forced a hint of a smile, and held her gloved hand out to him in greeting. "I suppose I should introduce myself properly. My name's Marie LeBeau."

[playsforkeeps]

LeBeau, she said. Of course she did. Was a dream he had, once upon a time, coming true for someone else worth the amount of pain he read in her eyes? Meeting alternate versions of yourself was always strange, always disorienting in a way, and this was no different. Was it really better of the world around you was in flames? The X-Men of the world Apocalypse ruled would say no, the Rogue there would say no.

So would he. He smiled, more friendly than flirtatious, though there was always hint of it underneath, he'd never been able to shake that, and took her hand.

"Remy leBeau. De pleasure's mine."

[theycalledmeacurse]

It was a short-lived dream in her world. Too short, but there was nothing to do for it. Maybe one day in this new world she'd helped to make, but there was no way to know for sure. She wouldn't remember the love of her life or the days they'd spent together, and she had to tell herself that it was better this way, because the alternative was the end of the entire world. She could never bring herself to be that selfish in any universe.

"Of course it is," she commented with a bit more smile and a hint of amusement in her voice. "It always is, isn't it?"

02 FOREST

[evercyclic]

"Are you okay?"

Airy had followed the other woman after she'd left the receiving area. It wasn't hard to find someone when they only had a few places they could go. When Rogue headed north it was a logical assumption that she'd come to the room on the map marked Forest. Airy knew opening up this place for people to see would be a good idea but there was something different about this woman's reaction.

She leaned over, unsure if she should leave things alone. Airy always wanted to help and if there was one small thing she could do for Rogue she'd be happy with that. It didn't hurt to try.

"I mean... you can tell me or not, I'm here to help... if I can."

[theycalledmeacurse]

Rogue hadn't heard anyone following her, but perhaps she just hadn't been paying attention. It was something that, once upon a time, could have gotten her killed, but now she couldn't bring herself to really care.

Taking a deep, shaking breath, she turned slightly to look at the woman who had greeted her when she arrived and shook her head. "It's just... It's been a long time since I last saw any of this," she explained in her smooth southern drawl. "I don't really know how to handle it."

[evercyclic]

"The forest?" Airy asked in a curious voice. She moved her eyes over the familiar bend of the trees while a smile touched her lips. This place was really special.

"This actually used to be my practice room." She waved a hand. "before we made the forest. I'm glad you like it. You're always welcome here."

Airy paused. "Why haven't you seen a forest?" She can't image living in a place without trees and she's spent the last year and half underground.

[theycalledmeacurse]

Before they made it. It was really hard to believe that they weren't actually outside, that the sky couldn't possibly contain the real sun. It felt real, though.

"I was..." Rogue looked away from Airy, her gaze moving to the ground beneath them. "I was locked away. I didn't see trees or the sky for three years." It hurt even to say it, let alone remember just how long those years had been.

[evercyclic]

Airy wanted to reach out to her but she didn't know if this girl wanted to be touched. Her fingers curled at her side and she knelt down besides rogue.

"Even if its just while you're here. You're welcome in this room." She smiled the sort of smile that rivals the unusual sun over head. "I'm sorry that you were locked away. I don't want that to happen again."

Airy would protect everyone if she could.

[theycalledmeacurse]

Rogue both wanted to be touched and was terrified of it. She didn't want to hurt anyone, especially not this bright, smiling woman who seemed so innocent.

"Thank you," she murmured, ever the polite southern lady even if she hadn't lived in the south for over a decade. "Are we really underground? Do any of the rooms have windows?" If they could reproduce a sun in this enclosed space, then maybe they could make the illusion of windows as well, or something like it.

[evercyclic]

Airy's smile faltered for a fifth of a second before resuming it's usual grin.

"No but I did ask about that when I first came here." It was actually a few months after she first came here but the exact time didn't really matter. Airy shifted her weight and took a seat next to Rogue. "I got a long winded explanation about structure and how it wasn't practical and that they could put up something like computer screens but that wouldn't really be practical either. If you'd heard the whole thing you I think you'd have been bored too."

Airy pursed her lips. "Sorry, I'm rambling."

[theycalledmeacurse]

It was suddenly difficult to breathe for Rogue, and she clenched her bare hands against her thighs, forcing in the slow, measured breaths to keep herself from panicking too much. No windows. No reminders that there was an actual living world out there, with people who were alive and well. There was no escape from the memory of when she'd been held prisoner, and suddenly this didn't seem all that different. (Which wasn't fair, of course, when so far she hadn't been treated as anything but a human being, but reason wasn't her strong suit at the moment.)

"Thank you," she repeated with another shake of her head, because she didn't know quite what else to say. "Thank you for being honest."

[evercyclic]

Airy frowned when she looked over at Rogue. It wasn't hard to tell that she was tense and Airy wished she could just comfort her except that she was a horrible liar.

"You won't be stuck here. You'll be able to walk around the city. I don't think they want you to go far because we're worried that anyone arriving here might get hurt if they get to far away but I've been to the park in the city. It's really pretty." She hoped that this helped. "I can show you where it is."

[theycalledmeacurse]

There wasn't much that could comfort Rogue at this point, though it was sweet that Airy was trying. Rogue wasn't sure that she deserved even an attempt at comfort, though, not after everything that had happened.

"I appreciate that," she said, meaning it sincerely, "but I think it might be better if I stay here. I don't know that I feel safe around other people."

[evercyclic]

Airy blinked. "Why's that?" She realized that it was a very insensitive question. "I mean... there was a time that I ran away from people too. I hurt them because I couldn't control what I can do."

It probably wasn't the same.

"Hiding made it worse but I won't make you hang out with people."

[theycalledmeacurse]

It was the same, oddly enough, but there was more to it than that. Rogue didn't just hurt people, she killed them, she had killed so many while locked away in the place that had once been her home. Experiments to find out how her power worked so they could use it against her kind and those who helped them.

And then there was her fear of other people and what they could do to her. Yes, of course she understood that not all people were cruel at heart; she'd met so many baseline humans who had given their lives to help keep her and the others safe during the war, but that did little to ease the instinctual fear of what a crowd could do if they got it into their heads that she was a danger to them.

"I think I'll be alright here with small numbers, but out there..." Rogue shook her head and looked back up at that beautiful sky that wasn't real. How could it not be real?